State Specific Question About: WEST VIRGINIA (WV)

Sorry so long but we are at a loss! We live in another state and in mid Sept we placed our home on the market for rent with the home being available not until October 1st. After reviewing several applications by prospective tenants we settled on one couple we felt would be best suited. This couple seemed to be the best fit and even mentioned they might want to eventually purchase the property. We had our property manager show them the residence and they immediately contacted us stating they were beyond thrilled and wanted us to hold it for them. We reiterated that it would not be available until the 1st of October being we were having some minor The repairs done before they moved in such as replacing patio doors, fixing the attic ladder and replacing a bedroom door that were all damaged by a prior tenant. Before moving in things stared to get weird but we thought it was possibly mis- communication. The tenants were suppose to mail us both the deposit, rent and rental agreement but had not but were trying to get the keys and access to the property from our property manager who BTW lives up the road from the residence. They called and wanted to cut the grass and begin power washing the house basically getting a jump on their moving in. It was at that time I began telling our property manager that they were not allowed to keep their mower or have access to the home until we received the rent, security and signed agreement. So I contact the tenants and spell this all out politely and clearly that until we get those items and the money has cleared they can not have entry to the home. Over night the security deposit shows up via UPS and the signed lease shows up via email, with them stating via email their sick daughter/dying daughter was the reason they forgot....so then we get a call from new tenant" stating the water pump in the garage is not working...it was prior to them accessing the property....we tell them that the home has city water and the water in the garage is not required but we will get the pump fixed by our contractor at a later date, our priority was the main home. Next the tenant wants to move in early to start painting. The home had recently been painted but they want to paint in some colors they like. I tell them we still have not recieved the rent check and once we recieve that we can do an addendum to the lease allowing them to move in the 27th September we also did a paint addendum which was clear in that we must approve the colors, they must be earthtone and that this was to be done at residence expense and if they do not follow the addendum they will be fined...so we get the rent check, it clears, we do the addendums, they move in the 27th and begin painting......we hear nothing from them until the 6th of October...that morning about 11 am they leave a message on our cellphone stating that toilet in the main bathroom is gushing water, the floor is about to collaspe and the other bathroom toilet is not working either....we contact the tenant who does not return our call for another 3 hours and when he finally does he states they just moved officially in the 5th and the toilet broke that night. They never called us and went on about how the other toilet would not stop running...uhmmmmm did you look at the flapper? Low and behold the chain had come off the flapper.....so we call our contractor who goes to residence and has to replace the toilet, flooring and tiles. Contractor states it appears someone rocked back on toilet and bolts broke.So Tuesday the contractor gets to the house and all the work is done by Thursday, tenant always had use of the 2nd bathroom which has toilet, sink and shower. Meanwhile the tenant calls from lowes that same Monday stating he has to replace all the electrical plastic covers being the prior tenants got paint on them. We just replaced them all and there was NOT paint on them....we tell him he can but at his own cost being they were fine before he moved in. ( BTW photos of the property were taken before this tenant moved in) So fast forward to today we get an email from the tenant (below) and now this all comes across as a scam or some type....Little does this tenant know our property manager went into the home yesterday after we read this to take photo's of the repaired bathroom for us and not only have they abandoned the property but they painted colors we never approved!!!! Barn red in the bedroom and living room, hot pink in one bedroom, dark blue in another room...they switched all the electrical wall sockets????? and the contractor we called again and he stated they told him when he was there they were moving stuff out because they were getting new furnature from Big Sandy...which was a lie. We call their old landlord again, and she tells us they told her they were buying our home and backed out the deal???? We were NOT selling our home! So this is the email the tenant leaves us and we needs some thoughts on this please!!!!!:

I’m sorry to inform you but Matt and I will not be moving into your rental home. We spent 3 days there and noticed several problems with the home. We were told that a home inspection had been done before you put the house up for rent after the previous tenants left abruptly. I feel like this is an inconvenience not only for you but for us as well. We have had to move all of our stuff back out which was missed days of work and lots of labor in not the best conditions. I will list below the issues that we had. My uncle is an attorney and is advising me what our next step should be. We truly appreciate your kindness but we feel that being so far away not even you are aware of the conditions of your home. We will mail the keys to the house and garage back to whatever address you provide, yours or Mrs. Myers. We have contacted all of the utility companies to please shut the service off that is in our name. Effective 10/10/2014 we will no longer be back on the premises of 272 Silas Drive Charleston WV 25312. The house and garage are completely vacant. Any communication regarding this issue should be email only for documentation reasons for both us and you. So sorry things did not work out.

1. Back deck has loose boards and is extremely slick due to mold and residue. This resulted in me falling and Matt’s stepfather falling while moving furniture in.

2. We were told the carpets were shampooed. When our kids would play and Matt would be on his knees working the pants would be dirty in the knees. The carpet also has a strong pet urine odor. We bought multiple products and the smell never went away at all.

3. The walls needed painted desperately which we agreed to do out of our own pocket. When we removed vents in the floor you can see the mold/mildew in the vents. My youngest daughter kept a cough and runny nose all three days which could be from the animal dander or the mold/mildew.

4. While we appreciate you fixing the toilets we had to go two days with no toilet. The one toilet never worked at all and when the second broke that caused an issue. The contractors said the bolts were rotted in two. We soaked up 10 towels in a 12 hour period. This leads me to believe that a full house inspection was not done or the leak would have been found.

5. The house is really infested with bugs. We encountered roaches, spiders, and centipedes in abundance. I know these cannot be helped sometimes but we were killing up to 20 bugs a day with the centipedes being the worst.

You are the landlord and boss. A sad issue is that you were using a local residential property manager as a go between.

I personally NEVER show a property until it is complete, or as a contractor I'm putting on the finishing touches during the first open house.

I never let a lease out of my hands until it is signed and I have all of the move in funds. Here if a person has a lease with a forged landlord signature then breaks into the property -- the police will treat this like a civil mater and do nothing. I won't give away my property to scan artists or squatters. If a applicant can't meet me with a cashier's check and sign the lease in person -- then it's their loss not mine.

Sure someone can move in early if the property is ready and there are no issues and I have a signed lease with cleared funds.

What I would do...

1. Not respond at all to these tenants. I'm not getting into some stupid "mold", "no toilet" argument with such tenants.

2. Come November when the rent became due, begin the process of eviction just to get this on their credit history (it's pretty inexpensive for me to do this in my state).

3. Make certain I send them the appropriate documentation regarding their security deposit within your states required time frame. Use it to repaint the rooms they painted.

Once I'd have the keys, along with their statements and disconnecting the utilities, they have supplied enough evidence for me to take possession of the property without the necessity of court.

I'd say their statements are probably valid - do they rise to the level of breaking the lease is a judgment call so no 2 would handle it the same. Decks can be VERY slick when wet and the boards do come loose. when was the last time you walked around with a screw gun and tightened everything up and when was it last power washed? Stinky carpet is in the nose of the beholder but if it was more than a year or so old, they're probably right. If it was that much of an issue, they should have had their nose in those fibers prior to signing the lease. The paint, you opened that door. the toilets, happened. the bugs, a nonissue if they were happy with everything else. Did you lift floor vents yourself? perhaps the "mold" was accumulated years of dust and carpet fiber.

Ok, we had our property manager take video and photo's of all the areas of the house yesterday evening AND prior to renting it. We also had it inspected by our contractor who was out there numerous times.

For me, the documentation you have from the Tenant is enough to take possession immediately. Question for me would be how badly I want to get this on the tenants' credit report -- because if I take possession now, I can't file for eviction on November 8.

I'd take possession and get to work renting the place out. Then, file suit in Small Claims for damages.